Clinicopathologic correlation with MUC expression in advanced gastric cancer

The qualitative and quantitative alteration of mucin expression in preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions has indicated its potential roles in neoplastic processes, as reviewed by Cozzi et al. [1]. Furthermore, numerous pieces of evidence indicate a close association between aberrant mucin expression and aggressive malignancies. Recently, various mucins (MUC1, MUC2, MUC3, MUC4, MUC5AC, MUC6, MUC7, and MUC8) have been used to evaluate the mucin phenotypes associated with gastric cancer [2]. Normal gastric mucosa shows cell type specific expression of MUC1, MUC5AC, and MUC6 with first two mucins found in the superficial epithelium and MUC6 in the deep glands [3-5]. Normal gastric mucosa does not express MUC2 and de novo expression begins in the intestinal metaplasia [4,6]. Alteration of mucin expression happens in gastric carcinomas and it was reported that gastric carcinomas contain a higher level of MUC1 expression than normal gastric mucosa. In contrast to the increased expression of MUC1 and MUC2, MUC5AC, and MUC6 expression decreased during gastric carcinogenesis. Controversies and conflicting data exist among studies that elucidated the relationship between the changes in mucin expression and the effect on prognosis and there is no absolute study showing the alteration of mucin expression in different histologic types. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, and MUC6 expresOriginal Article Korean Journal of Clinical Oncology 2018;14:89-94 https://doi.org/10.14216/kjco.18016 pISSN 1738-8082 ∙ eISSN 2288-4084